the williwaw endeavour

building the (desire for) the diversionette

2012-02-05T06:21:00.003-06:00

Desire it. Consume it. Obey it.

williwaw presents the diversionette. available 15/03/2012.

building the perfect diversionette

2012-02-03T16:30:00.005-06:00

The artwork is basically complete. There's a wee matter of the disques themselves, but the drawering appears to be done, the fine, fine drawering of FiST.

It all comes together 15/03/2012

night of the earth men, 09.12.2011

2011-11-17T03:45:00.009-06:00

Behold, the earth men - including our beloved comrade williwaw - are coming!

NIGHT OF THE EARTH MEN part one

9. DECEMBER 2011
9 PM - 12 AM (part two immediately follows)

THE BERKELEY SUITE
237 North St, Glasgow

featuring such notable earth men as

TUT VU VU

williwaw

and tedthetrumpet

all saturday, all amp'd uke

2011-10-13T11:19:00.003-05:00

this just in

our shaggy ol' comrade williwaw will be providing a day of sonic dabbling to accompany the many fine paintings of Laura A Hunter...

...currently hanging 'round Iota Gallery in Hyndland Street on that seemingly teeming paradise, Glasgow's West End. And that day will be this Saturday, the 15th of October, and that day will be all manner of hours between 10 and 5.

(actual times may vary, consult your local physician to see what amp'd uke dosage is best for you)

the third o' november

2011-10-11T03:06:00.001-05:00

The rough hewn stone walls of The Chalet once again play host to our beloved comrade williwaw on the third of november with the local sonic luminary peter nicholson performing solo and possibly tandem. Rumours abuzz that others may join in the evening, including the ever elusive w. owen brimijoin.

C'mon doun the lane (18 Dixon Avenue) and join in the chant, a'ight?

tonight, and every night, fireworks!

2011-08-30T02:26:00.002-05:00

a quick reminder for all in the Greater Strathclyde Vicinity...

it's a stereo/mono two-fer!

2011-08-26T05:42:00.003-05:00

behold! a two-fer-one posting special! our comrade williwaw is performing in quick-'n'-tidy support of john knox sex club on sunday the 28th of august at stereo and then performing all by their lonesome all night tuesday the 30th of august at mono.

random sound calvacade #30

2011-07-16T04:07:00.004-05:00

in further honour of st. swithun's day, we present the other bit of recording frolick from our comrade williwaw from yesterday's live-to-virtual-tape tomfoolery at chem19 studios with jamie savage still at the desk. another bit of the borrowed, a rather straight-forward/backward/sideways rendition of neonlicht by Sie-wissen-wer.

more of the same oppressive, long-in-the-tooth squalling can always be found at the williwaw sound emporium.

random sound calvacade #29

2011-07-15T17:52:00.005-05:00

in honour of st. swithun's day, our comrade williwaw recorded a loving, if overlong, rendition of fall by wayne shorter at chem19 studios with jamie savage at the potentiometers on this most auspicious if obscure holiday. behold!

you play the waterfront, i'll play the closet

2011-05-29T12:22:00.005-05:00

evidence has been unearthed of the last williwaw activity inside the bare-stone-wall confines of The Chalet - will our comrade retreat into what appears to be a closet for the amp'd uke antics on 18. June 2011? Only time, space and the so-called third dimension know for sure.

(photo by one of the Streetland Festival's movers and/or shakers)

sound and vision at the chalet 18.06.2011

2011-05-28T10:46:00.002-05:00

our amp'd uke hero williwaw oversees a wee bit of audio-visual tête-à-tête in the friendly exposed-stone-cottage confines of the Chalet, featuring such low-to-high-brow collisions as our gang v. penderecki and many, well, some others.

a springtime meeting of streets

2011-03-23T05:06:00.006-05:00

our comrade williwaw brings the din back to Govanhill on 2. April 2011 to raise a few funds for the art-community street festival of the Sout' Side, Streetland.

how long will our comrade drone on and on o'er the works of wayne shorter? Truly, only time will tell.

a li'l A/V for so/do/mi/la

2011-01-23T14:59:00.003-06:00

while waiting for some wee issues in labeling the wee CD-Rs so that the new hit single can be properly released, ne'er to return, here's a wee audio-visual construct to tide o'er the aching masses.

a din for the din-din tonight

2011-01-06T03:03:00.003-06:00

Another amp'd uke outing for our comrade wiliwaw at the go slow cafe this thursday - gads! tonight! - beginning 'round eight pm.

despite having just bruised their left - frettin' - hand last night on the cyclommute (patent pending) home, the automatic dinner music for the people should feature some of usual overly long takes on the works of wayne shorter, gil evans, evangelos odysseas papathanassiou and, yes, even williwaw.

the amplified automaton, unleashed!

2010-11-19T14:37:00.004-06:00

not having the tried and true camera operator around, our comrade williwaw waits until the ultimate look-ma-no-hands portion of the ever long and longing set to take some evidence of the most recent dabbling in amplified delectation. automatic dinner music, ahoy!

this sort of thing has got the old cobwebbed cogs turning: using an ensemble of unattended 'ukuleles (can anything match the might of the williwaw ensemble? no, nothing can) to create a much automated manner of music. watch this space - no, not this one, this one - for more as it develops and eventually envelops us all.

the hastily rescheduled stylings are go!

2010-11-17T06:43:00.003-06:00

last week's loss is this week's gain, behold!

williwaw

18. NOVEMBER 2010

THURSDAY 8 PM

GO SLOW CAFÉ

(452 VICTORIA ROAD / GOVANHILL)

further notices of the amp'd action ahead

2010-11-09T12:55:00.003-06:00

Behold! The virtual fliers abound!

thanks to those who took these snaps at the sonic soak back when in govanhill

more dulcet tones for your delectation

2010-11-05T10:22:00.003-05:00

our beloved comrade williwaw will once again be playing dulcet tones for your general gustatory enjoyment next thursday, 11.11.2010, at the go slow café. some pumpkin pie will (possibly) be served.

random sound calvacade #28

2010-10-20T01:14:00.008-05:00

behold! a bit-rough, a bit-quick, a Bisquick mix from the 19. October williwaw recording session of that exploration of open strings, so-do-mi-la (hence the title, smartypants). recorded by jamie savage at chem19 studios in nearby hamilton, scotland.

(the track, along with all manner of previous amp'd uke exorcisms, can be downloaded from the williwaw sound emporium)

how does it sound? No, really, that's not a rhetoric question. What do you think? Sure, the material is rubbish, but what of the mix? Besides making it all louder - deaf forever to the battle's din! - what would you change? Democracy, electroacoustic style!

studio-esque living

2010-10-14T06:38:00.005-05:00

the last time comrade williaw was in a studio was over eight years ago to record with kip rainey the brilliantly misunderstood the kids are not ready extended player, which can be heard in all its thrilling extended entirety in the studio-esque lives section of the williwaw sound emporium.

next tuesday, to celebrate the defeat of redcoat Cornwallis, williwaw returns to the studio, the Chem19 studio 2 to be a bit more specific. The plan is to rock, skronk and sassify some tracks for the kids, even if the kids are still not ready for 'em. The bit more specific plans are to record recent stalwarts so-do-mi-la and a hymn for billy hayes live, tidy 'em up, and ship 'em out.

here's to a fruitful session - plums, pears and plucked strings, ahoy!

the proof is in the pooling

2010-08-25T04:37:00.004-05:00

behold the epic tide of sound! our comrade williwaw performs, albeit in the usual staid manner, as part of a sonic soak, a two-day fund-and/or-awareness-raising event in the govanhill baths on the beloved south side of glasgow. the video comprises most of the oft- and perchance over-played number, so-do-mi-la, with the addition of moving plants - thrills!

drowning in sound

2010-08-20T06:13:00.005-05:00

our comrade and occasional hero williwaw be soaking in it, the proverbial water, that is, as williwaw takes to the deep end of the Govanhill Baths this weekend as part of Sonic Soak, a benefit to help the Baths re-open.

The event begins at 11 AM, Saturday, 21. August 2010. the amp'd uke mayhem begins at 12:10 PM, so bring your toasties, tea and other lunchtime accessories for a wee skronk in the mammoth swimming pool.

two signs of sputtering life

2010-07-10T06:55:00.009-05:00

first we see our comrade williwaw first battling a motley horde of stools and chairs in the middle of its first and only set in june...

and then we find that loveable scamp williwaw in the usual hunched position battling the rising din at the end of its third and last set in july...

the pace continues, ongoing slowly

2010-06-12T07:59:00.006-05:00

spreading more amplified love, our comrade williwaw returns to the comforting confines of the go slow cafe, 452 victoria road, glasgow on the second of july, this very year of two-thousand-and-change. the night will also feature the unveiling - opening, if you will, of new visual works by simon harlow.

a show, a show, a slowly ongoing show

2010-05-26T15:54:00.004-05:00

williwaw will be hosting an intimate evening of amp'd uke histrionics, nylon-strung sonic exorcisms and other rollicking sound actions on saturday, the fifth of june, two-thousand-and-a-dime, at the go slow cafe, 452 victoria road, queens park, glasgow.

random sound calvacade #27

2010-04-18T17:28:00.006-05:00

A bit of the telematic chicanery that took place just o'er a year ago - 24. march 2009 - at Elastic Arts Foundation on north milwaukee avenue. Conspirators for the chicanery included our comrade williwaw, ian hatcher on glockenspiel/melodica, daniel godston on trumpet, amanda gutierrez on laptop, jayve montgomery on laptop/mixer, noé cuéllar on visuals along with collaborators from Tucson, Arizona, Ciudad de México, D.F., and Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires.

moving pictures from the newcastle meltdown

2010-03-03T06:55:00.003-06:00

the mysterious fred pipes not only has stolen the soul of beloved comrade williwaw but also captured the last four-some minutes of its appearance at the ukelear [sic] meltdown on sunday, 28.02.2010.

après l'effondrement, les photos

2010-03-02T08:11:00.008-06:00

having weathered the ukelear [sic] meltdown in newcastle-upon-tyne, our comrade williwaw has found himself to be encapsulated in virtual tintypes - behold the visual pleasantries!

during the amp'd uke hijinks that sunday afternoon, the center-stage microphone appeared to be a bit of a gaffer gaff, but in these photos, it appears as though the films are speaking truth to their own power. regards to the photographer/soul-stealer, the mysterious fred pipes

this one's strictly for the geordies

2010-02-22T03:03:00.003-06:00

williwaw will be finally returning to the stage proper, or more properly, the cinema, as part of the third ukulelear meltdown at the star and shadow cinema which lies upon Stepney Bank, a wee lane in Newcastle, which lies upon the Tyne, on Sunday, 28. February 2010 at the easy-going hour of four pm.

not only will the beloved comrade be supplying the stock-in-trade amp'd-uke histrionics to the masquerade, but some manner of workshop entitled Amplifying your uke for a little fun, a lot less friends and absolutely no profit at the wee early hour of eleven am on that same day. A curious time, indeed.

In the meantime, our comrade will be running amok trying to find 35 x 70 cm pieces of paneling. these are the lives we have chosen.

random sound calvacade #26

2009-10-09T09:58:00.002-05:00

another round o' tasty vittles from the incomparable colin-padrick charles. the williwaw source material for this fine bit o' stürm-und-tanzen is pierpont, the first offering from shimmering coaster of light - you know, the school-bus song.

mister charles also went under the guise of saint pokie, making better musicks with Reactor, ten fingers and the truth than one could think possible.

the original bombast and all its bombastic brethren from the shimmering coaster of light collection can now be procured through the usual unusual means - the bartering of hogsheads to bushels - and thereafter heard in its unconfounded entirety at your whim and leisure. That is, if you ain't got it, you can gets it. And boy howdy, you'll gets it but good.

chicago is calling, will you accept the charges?

2009-10-02T14:27:00.005-05:00

Distance be damned!

On heave-ho hiatus for far too long, beloved comrade williwaw will once again take part in Chicago Calling Cuatro, sending a flurry of zeros and ones through this Series of Tubes to that home so far away from home, Brown Rice, 4432 north kedzie ave, chicago usa, on Friday, 2. October 2009, after 10 pm. That's after 4 am on Saturday for those playing the trans-atlantic version.

The night - tonight, truth be told - is truly a night of stars, no matter what the clouds may think. Making a joyous din will be a true horde of haughty compatriots:

Ritwik Banerji - saxophone
Jimmy Bennington - batterie
Steve Dalanchinsky - poetry (New York City)
Jon Godston - soprano saxophone
Jayve Montgomery - saxophones and percussion
Gregory O’Drobinak - Arc of the Oven
Jim Ryan - kalimba (Oakland)
Michael Staron - bass
Ernesto Sturm Diaz-Infante - bajo sexto (San Francisco)

random sound calvacade #25

2009-06-13T14:30:00.006-05:00

the incomparable colin-padrick charles once upon a time took some williwaw into the ol' computational perambulator and came out with something tasty and fresh. this particular bit was found in an otherwise disposable box of old backups, mostly floppy disks that are neither floppy nor playable anymore. the williwaw source material is the phonocrat, the second offering from a portrait of shelves, which can be heard in its unperambulated entirety at the williwaw sound emporium.

mister charles also went under the guise of saint pokie, making better musicks with Reactor, ten fingers and the truth than one could think possible.

20. june 2009

2009-06-13T14:26:00.004-05:00

random sound calvacade #24

2009-05-13T21:19:00.005-05:00

hot off the battlefield!

a mere minute from the sixty-plus minutes of amplified dialogue 'twixt williwaw and chuck falzone - oh! the interlocution! - at the brown rice performance emporium on saturday 09. may 2009

soon the evening's eloquence in its entirety can be enjoyed in delectable morsel form at the williwaw ensemble sight and sound cavalcade

williwaw vs. falzone

2009-05-09T16:19:00.005-05:00

williwaw and chuck falzone (flying luttenbachers, my name is rar-rar, buck pig) present a loving set of impressions of the Symbol of their shared hometown in an evening of amplified 'ukulele & guitar tête-à-tête.

Following in fine binary form is the equally enticing duo of erica dicker on baroque violin - can you smell the scordatura? - and ryan ingebritsen on all manner of electromechanical manipulations.

The show opens with un peu de la trompette by Daniel Godston.

williwaw vs. sonic bridge, II: the rematch

2009-02-22T12:03:00.004-06:00

Bring on the telematicism! Ever building bridges, our comrade williwaw once again will take the stage and the Skype with stalwart cohorts in an effort to create a wondrous interequatorial din:

TUESDAY • 24. March 2009
ELASTIC ARTS
2830 N. Milwaukee Ave, 2nd Floor

The local entourage features Dan Godston, Jayve Montgomery, Amanda Gutierrez, Noé Cuéllar and Joshua Manchester (along with beloved comrade williwaw). Other sites include Tucson, Arizona, Ciudad de México, D.F., and Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires. Here's the view from Buenos Aires at Sonic Bridge I on 23. January 2009:

¡he aquí, la tecnología!

2009-01-21T11:30:00.002-06:00

williwaw takes part in Sonic Bridge a trans-border bending between Chicago, New Orleans, Mexico City & Buenos Aires on 23. january 2009. Local transmission will be from the tender confines of brown rice (4432 north kedzie ave, chicago usa). Global transmission can be found here.

strooooke!

2009-01-10T23:31:00.004-06:00

a nugget of a gem of a pearl was recently uncovered - driver has no cash playing in 1992 - and put upon this series of tubes. behold, the beginning of that long ago night, where we find our heroes in battle with billy squier and his ribald command, stroke!

more of this ribaldry can be found within you own personal williwaw vision quest.

invasion of the bus-riding film-making robots

2008-12-09T23:14:00.003-06:00

our comrade williwaw was looking for silent movies about robots, and boy howdy! were there robots, robots making movies. Behind the green curtain is this explanation:

This robot makes short films based on its visual experience. Its eyes travel about the city on buses while the body sits in a gallery. The eyes collect snippets of video, and transmit them to the body when their buses come within range of a Cafenet wireless internet node. The robot body splits the video into individual frames and analyses each one, obtaining twenty numbers reflecting the arrangement of colour, shape and detail within the frame. These numbers are treated as coordinates in a twenty dimensional space, in which distance is somewhat related to visual difference. For twelve hours a day the robot traces a zigzagging path through this space. This path passes through a series of images, which become a video sequence. Visitors to the gallery can see this video, called variously the robot's "dream" or "stream of consciousness". At the end of the day the robot looks over its days work and joins the best parts together as a finished film. The robot uses neural networks and heuristic rules to choose waypoints for its daily dream, but the finished film is mainly selected for the smoothness of its movement through the space. The robot will remember everything it sees until it has five million images in its mind, after which it will replace its least favourite images with new ones. In addition to getting images from the eyes, the robot creates false memories by combining and manipulating well-liked and overused images. These notes are incomplete.

the audio is the first and third parts of a plagal cadence in honor of billy hayes, who passed into the ether at the end of august, from the september outing at brown rice, which can be heard and/or downloaded in its entirety at the williwaw sound emporium.

the twenty-third film on wayne shorter

2008-12-08T13:11:00.007-06:00

If Glenn Gould merits twenty two films, how many does Wayne Shorter merit? Ten? Twelve? A hundred and six? Well, let this bit of bufoonery serve as the first of many hopefully to come, a bit of williwaw playing Shorter's Fall, recorded at brown rice during the ides of autumn, september 15th for all the calendar lovers in the house. the somewhat illegible (d'oh) text are haikus by Richard Wright; the more legible visuals are a train trip in Zürich.

random sound calvacade #23

2008-11-23T23:36:00.004-06:00

reasonable fresh sounds... for a change!

the following segment from the williwaw set at brown rice on 15. september 2008 was a false start on several fronts, but nevertheless, the train kept rollin', so there's three and a half minutes of mistake-ridden bits to behold!

the source is Seemless by the never-heralded rock ensemble bale, which included craig abell-champion, michael verzani, an alesis hr16, scott spears, demir o'steen, peter pollack and, for one afternoon, victor cortez. actually, this is just the introduction to that song, rendered as mere drizzle. ooze, even.

this snippet and the rest of the night's williwaw folly can be heard and dowloaded with great abandon at the williwaw sound emporium

punctus contra shiva

2008-11-13T19:08:00.005-06:00

our beloved comrade returns to Brown Rice on Monday, 17. November at 9 pm, for a duet - nay, battle royale - with Dan Godston on trumpet and sonic sundries. Is pure randomness actually pure order? All will be revealed! It'll be something, by golly.

williwaw had previously joined Godston and Jayve Montgomery for the second set at the Brown Rice on the 15. September. Hopefully that bit of interplanetary exuberance can be soon relived at the williwaw sound emporium.

october folly

2008-10-26T22:15:00.006-05:00

to paraphrase a review of the first williwaw release, sixty minutes of dolby (c) reduced noise, details are sketchy on the recent outing of williwaw at the final outing of third annual chicago calling arts festival at AV-aerie. there were some technical difficulties during the evening - strangely not associated with williwaw's usual festooning horde of failures. one of the difficulties involved playing the short films, which allowed the bounty of williwaw to fill time and space with ben billington on a few pieces of batterie, jon godston on soprano sax and greg o'drobinak on a device of his own fiendish crafting, the arc of the oven. we didn't even notice when the films finally started to roll. there is apparently no sonic proof of the evening, but there is this photogravure (courtesy rebecca mcallister):

o'drobinak, godston, williwaw & billington at AV-aerie, chicago usa.

random sound calvacade #21 & 22

2008-09-29T10:27:00.004-05:00

the hull, cap'n, she's gonna blow!

even more heavily vaulted assignments: this dainty number for piano-forté was a rounded binary assignment. if you're not sure what a rounded binary form is, you're in luck. it received no comments. it might not have even been an assignment. the memory is fuzzy, and not logically speaking...

bonus! there are little cheats to attempt to "warm" the cold, virtual sound of MIDI, some of which can make the most dainty of numbers (well, 0's and 1's, that is) sound posilutely rocking. this li'l bonus doesn't reach the histrionic heights, but it could truly be considered (enter booming radio voice) the remix.

random sound calvacade #20

2008-09-28T19:26:00.005-05:00

yes, little jimmy, the merry-go-round did break down...

more heavily vaulted assignments: this one was for the same class as a previous entry in the calvacade, but this was for brass quintet. no one could ever call this one more complex than need be. yes, it is the merry-go-round broke down. without a satisfactory brass pad available on this crude MIDI mimickry, the tune was rendered with a hideous synth pad, in back-handed honor of gershon kingsley.

williwaw dancer, your life is calling

2008-09-25T14:52:00.006-05:00

williwaw will be taking part in the third annual chicago calling arts festival, playing sonic counterpoint to an experimental film by rona mark.

SUNDAY | 12. OCTOBER 2008 | 7 PM
AV-Aerie 2000 W FULTON #310

also taking part in the evening's aesthetic panoply are lisa abbatomarco, laura evonne steinman, dave awl, rachel thorne germond, insook choi, carol genetti, sid yiddish and the clean boys.

shameless reminders á go-go

2008-09-06T16:19:00.007-05:00

Gather ye 'round the hearth that be Brown Rice (4432 N Kedzie Ave) for a wee bit of amplified 'ukulele enchantment on Monday, the 15th of September. Gather ye for sonic histrionics, aural exorcisms, and all manner of frolicks. Gather ye then and there, lest ye be damned for all eternity, or until the next show, whichever comes first.

download the flier, tell all the people you love, hate, love to hate and yes, even hate to love about it

in just one click, you can find the recent write-up on your comrade in smooth-sailin' JAZZIZ magazine at the home of williwaw print and hear all manner of antiquated williwaw sound as well as semi-related blatherings of sight and sound right here. Oh, this series of tubes!

random sound calvacade #19

2008-09-06T16:09:00.008-05:00

hey nineteen - the calvacade rolls on!

the other of the two tweakings of space sounds, and yet another part of the ever-burdened series, our very lives are being compressed. this one is based on the acoustic detritus produced by a Jovian Bow shock.

random sound calvacade #18

2008-09-05T16:50:00.003-05:00

on a slow day in psychoacoustics, the ever-so-credible phonaut turned the ever-so-ignorant-of-such-things williwaw on to the recordings of astrophysical activity. here's the first of two completed tweakings - yes, more of the ever expanding our very lives are being compressed series. blame the university of iowa - no, not for everything, just for explaining the source material, earth proton whistlers.

random sound calvacade #17

2008-09-04T00:12:00.004-05:00

now here's a gem - the first composition assignment of the artist known possibly as williwaw. this meager opus for violin and pianer was played by two classmates who did a much better job of making it sound musical than this gosh-forsaken musical instrument digital interface crap, but that's what you get in this cold, virtual world, alas.

... Teacher Dave's one comment on the assignment:

more complex than need be

quality computing is job one million and six

2008-08-25T11:46:00.003-05:00

dead links! cursed dead links! discovered dead links at williwaw sound emporium over conversation playing a loft rummage sale over the weekend - a most curious and circuitous way of quality assurance. the links are fixed, and the kids are not ready is now ready for your downloadabilities. finally. sigh.

random sound calvacade #16

2008-08-21T14:42:00.012-05:00

experimenting with a new flash media player here as it seems as though the other simple one has gone all craptacular on us - sigh. these deceptive sounds were not taken from another yawntastic art installation, but from Binion's Horseshoe, where our comrade almost got punched in the face and elsewhere for trying to take a picture of the ghost of Willie Mosconi

horse : excerpt one

fresh sounds

2008-08-14T11:41:00.007-05:00

the artist rather occasionally known as williwaw will be making a return to the stage, well, not exactly stage, but space, and time, and the continuum that lies beneath.

williwaw
monday 15.09.2008 nine pm
at brown rice
4432 north kedzie avenue

brown rice is the intimate (possibly even cozy) performance space curated by daniel godston and friends that lies just beyond the door under the sign that reads "perfect rubber stamps" (previously known as the candlestick maker curated by michael zerang)

following on the albeit distant heels of the return of driver has no cash and the recent rise in frequency of williwaw in print, will be the return of amplified 'ukulele research. thrills, chills and spills - none of these will be there, but your sonic exorcism is guaranteed.

fresh print

2008-07-25T15:51:00.004-05:00

comrade alexander gelfand has been a naughty kitten, and soiled his mittens with some fresh proverbial ink on williwaw in jazziz magazine. the textual portions of his fine penning can be found, wonderfully transcribed by my aching tendons (no thanks to the state of OCR software - c'mon, boffins, let's sort this out once and for all) in the williwaw newsbits section. the real article features/frightens with a larger than four-by-six-inch likeness of the artist known sometimes as williwaw and the following pull quote from said likeness

It turned into a horrible - well, not horrible ... let's call it a beautiful train wreck of sound

random sound calvacade #15

2008-06-20T15:28:00.003-05:00

yet another vegasmasses entry into the calvacade: this particular excerpt comes from the last entry in the lumbering volumes, simply entitled end. fair warning: this excerpt does get much louder in the middle, so let the subtlety ride on, peace frog.

end : excerpt one

random sound calvacade #12, 13 & 14

2008-06-18T15:44:00.003-05:00

more from the vegasmasses volumes. these excerpts come from the great lumbering track trop, recorded -gasp- at the Tropicana casino. though notes are sketchy at best what sort of CoolEdit waveform editing was used to crush, kill and destroy the recorded sound, it highlighted here the underlying drone of the casino, how it really plays upon a simple harmonic system that continues melodic motion without any harmonic motion, regardless of where the recorder wandered. credit should be given to the ever-so-credible phonaut, who encouraged many early parts of the overarching our very lives are being compressed series, including these particular masses. three more excerpts for your mixing, matching, lathering, rinsing and general pleasure.

trop : excerpt one

trop : excerpt two

trop : excerpt three

random sound calvacade #9, 10 & 11

2008-06-16T12:53:00.010-05:00

after watching some of Olivo Barbieri's Site Specific short film series, the calvacade turns its attention to another most particular series: vegasmasses. wandering around the strips - old and new - of las vegas (visiting the undeniable Overlord of the Mightiest Rock, peter pollack) with a minidisc recorder, the sounds of many casinos were captured, crushed and yes, even compressed.

the beauty of las vegas casinos is the attention to aural and visual detail: every doorknob, faucet and throw pillow follows the theme, every sound from every slot machine is in the same key, creating a mellifluous din.

two volumes of large sound masses were originally passed among the precious few, magnifying the aural detail. here are not one, not two, but three excerpts from the lumbering track grand. mix, match, lather, rinse, enjoy.

grand : excerpt one

grand : excerpt two

grand : excerpt three

random sound calvacade #8

2008-06-15T13:49:00.005-05:00

diggin' deep into the vaults, way down in the hole, if you will, comes today's random sound calvacade - a bit of musical-instrument digital-interface, or midi action. cleaning out some old files, a chorale study for a music theory course was found - circa 1989, maybe 1990. plopped the old pencil copy into the 'pooter, and behold! the accompanying words for this meagre study were:

intra orbis terrae
opprimat meam animam
ex mearum ostiarum
sanguis incipiat fundere

it has something to do with the earth and a crushing head wound. yes, that's all it really ever is: sabbath, bloody sabbath.

random sound calvacade #7

2008-06-11T13:26:00.004-05:00

from the nineteenth day of the fourth month of, eh, let's just call it 2003, is this excerpt of a live sound-action battle between williwaw and the sound and fury known as chad robinson (who currently rocks bells for dark fog). like several recordings made at the esteemed candlestick maker (recently reopened as brown rice - love any/all references to Don Cherry), the recording was very quiet, until the sound and fury unleashed his batterie - reconstructing some semblance of balance was not wholly successful, but the wholly impromptu sound action is somewhat audible. this is the fifth of what has been called eight great indecisive moments. behold!

random sound calvacade #6

2008-06-07T09:36:00.005-05:00

d'oh! started the new without completing the old - an unfinished project? never! here's another excerpt from the first installment of our very lives are being compressed (based on the inaugural voyage of the williwaw ensemble). tweaked often, but never twittered.

random sound calvacade #5

2008-06-06T17:06:00.005-05:00

the return of the our very lives are being compressed series, ahoy!

as with previous parts of the series, something quite unexpected happened when every thought and action was placed into the smallest dynamic space - on, off, red, green - the compressed life; when we try to resurrect the soft amid the deafening din, things go awry. lame poetics aside, the source material of this excerpt is not a uke through numerous pedals, amps and blown speakers, but a comedy routine by a member of the Second City troupe, recorded without permission because bored hands are the devil's playthings. sadly, then, this is 'ukulele free, but amplified? oh, mercy!

a portrait of your very own shelves

2008-06-01T19:46:00.003-05:00

up with availability! the long-player a portrait of shelves is now up in thrilling MPEG-I Audio Layer 3 format (when will the Fraunhofer Society start buying continents with all those residual dollars?).

the album was recorded - channeled, if you will - by the incomparable rick valentin on the thirteenth day of the second month of the two-thousandth year of this current era. it was originally released as a three "mini" (8 cm) compact disc set of extremely limited edition. Subsequent versions had intermissions of public-domain player piano music inbetween what would have been the three discs. it garnered praise from Splendid, including the following pullquote material:

I'm so stunned by the versatility, beauty and ugliness unleashed by this little chunk of aluminum that I took for granted that I don't know whether to love it or fear it.

For those not in on the earlier skinny, also available for your general perusal and up-down-and-side-to-side-loading antics is the extended player the kids are not ready.

DHNC ¡DONE!

2008-06-01T16:19:00.004-05:00

it was all whirlwind, heat and flash...

(photos by kim gollings)

the artist seldom known as williwaw was playing a recent acquisition for the most rollicking event: an eight-string 'ukulele - or taro-patch fiddle, for those organologists among us - with a built-in under-the-saddle transducer and pre-amp. the other two-thirds of the unstable entertainment molecule preferred it to the other numerous ukes available - the sound was admittedly pretty keen for several songs of the evening, and the tuning finally settled before the show, but euf! the string tension was revealing repetitive stress disorders the former artist didn't even know they had - wrist pads and isometric exercises for everyone this holiday season, hoo-boy! two amps were used in an attempt for bass and treble, although one of the amps seemed to provide all frequencies and the other just glistening mud. the kids just love that glistenin' mud. for those who didn't get out of bed in time, the set was a hurried six: Fix Me / Love Is Alive / SWLABR / Crash Course In Brain Surgery (the original Budgie way, not that crapulent cover version) / Hot Blooded + Jukebox Hero / We're An American Band

these guys were weird

the mysterious mister charles found the entertainment molecule to be weird, which is fine by the molecule, and he also took a nice snap of the magic aura of driver has no cash.

(photo by the mysterious mister charles)

A limited number of driver has no cash stickers are still available - Inquire within.

DHNC ¡NOW!

2008-05-21T20:17:00.006-05:00

driver has no cash - francis bradley gill, robert rising & the artist somewhat rarely known as williwaw - have, like the Great Phoenix, risen from the ashes.

SUNDAY MAY 25 8 PM
THE HIGH DIVE
51 MAIN STREET
CHAMPAIGN USA

there will be much roaring, much whimpering, cowering even, from the mighty rock. can you handle such rock? no, you can't. but you'll try, oh how you'll try, to carry on. there are tickets. there will be no t-shirts. no, don't cry, there will be other trinkets. there will be other bands. so many bands. so much rock. you, you really should stay away. you, you're just not ready. stay home. yes, the sofa. that's the place for you...

the random sound calvacade will continue soon after the Great Phoenix returns to the ashes

random sound calvacade #4

2008-05-12T15:25:00.007-05:00

here's part two of untold hordes of quaint snippets from the inaugural our very lives are being compressed

random sound calvacade #3

2008-05-09T10:24:00.007-05:00

here's the first of several excerpts from the maiden voyage of the williwaw ensemble. the original recording was incredibly quiet, the subtlest hemming and hawing of the air... to achieve some sense of audibility, the recordings were compressed, and then, inadvertently, compressed several more times. the smallest artifact became the eighty-decibel elephant in the middle of the mix. despite the heavy-handed dynamism, the accidental prominence of one particular uke was still evident (the ensemble was assembled as a crude half-circle on a rug filled with 'ukuleles for their choosing). To stamp out such an uprising, further tweaking was applied, and the result became the first installment of the still on-going, if hardly living, project our very lives are being compressed.

random sound calvacade #2

2008-05-08T08:05:00.006-05:00

back for more waveform wrangling, it's the second and last (truly, a short-lived project) mfsb reduction, this time the source was my mood.

somewhere the full version lies, tucked away in some nook and/or cranny, but perhaps this trifling will suffice, perhaps it's more than enough of this. so much per happenstance.

random sound calvacade #1

2008-05-07T11:42:00.012-05:00

here's something antiquely novel... the beginning of the end of a great new escapade: the embedded object.

today's feature is from a short-lived (like all things williwaw) project involving the waveform mangling of songs by mother father sister brother, otherwise known as MFSB. like most, nay, all of these side manglings, only one object - one particular song - was used, and only the dearly departed CoolEdit was used for mangling. for this one, the source was poinciana. on some hard drive in some remote undisclosed location, the full version of this exists. this was one of the several samples that were sent as a portfolio for some sort of sound-design position that was not to be had. perhaps, after reveling in these thirty seconds, the reason(s) will all be clear.

an unstable fill

2008-03-04T09:52:00.004-06:00

euf. now i've really done it. realizing that there wasn't much point in having these bits o' malarkey "published" to my wee domain, donkeyscratch.com, this li'l bulletin had migrated over to the Googles for java readiness, as well as trying to fix some error that had found its way -ahem- somehow -ahem- into the template. the good news? hopefully this li'l bit of bulletinizations will be java-ready, and look ma, it's got labels! (sigh). the bad news? it's now all a complete mess, and i can't resolve a CNAME/DNS issue for the life o' me. i've always been a terrible host, and now, a terrible webhost. hopefully all will be resolved - as soon as the terrible host can wrest themselves away from wrangling with Pisarenko's method.

another great moment in ego-based browsing
someone has made a williwaw presence on last.fm. i'm not sure how that particular series of tubes works, but b'golly, i'm trying to learn all the same. thanks, someone.

the great(er) hiatus

2008-02-25T13:52:00.004-06:00

before the dawn of the great internet, people had to keep track of things. no, back then things were not left to the Great Cache, for the Great Cache was still in its infancy, and not very great at all. and all this is preamble to the simple problem that williwaw is not completely sure when driver has no cash played its last show. it was a long time ago. a long, long time ago. well, somebody has done lost their marbles, and has booked some sort of tribute to dreams unfulfilled, replete with many defunct bands from circa 1993. driver has no cash, despite poor record keeping, did play in 1993. more than once, even. and like a phoenix rising from the ashes in some sort of shambled manner, driver has no cash will now play in 2008. the 25th of may, in the heart of champaign-urbana - well, just the heart of champaign.

yes, everything old is still old, but then again, yes.

the great hiatus

2008-02-25T09:47:00.003-06:00

the most recent williwaw show was the 22nd of march, 2005 - opening for the incomparable ed burch. yes, 2005. well, now there's an asterisk there.

on saturday, the 16th of february, williwaw wandered in late to an open-mike 'ukulele event, the Ukulele Cabaret at Silvie's Lounge. the notice for the event included such gems as "costumes, skits and props are encouraged" - euf. Precisely not the scene of choice. But as mild mannered "bill" the artist otherwise known as williwaw played a short ditty with an EHX 2880 and an old rebuilt Gibson amp (purchased at an estate auction in Rantoul, and last heard on airwaves passing through the galaxy, sent from WEFT in 1997. the sound of the amp dying is heard on the mighty disc, shimmering coaster of light). the ditty was received cordially by those in attendance, especially the feller in the tropic shirt and straw hat with his fingers in his ears - an aesthetic, not acoustic, choice. A return to the stage, true, but definitely with a whimper, not a roar. so, in short, outside of porch-side yanni-esque romps for fireworks with the incomparable kip rainey, williwaw hasn't played in public since 2005*.

celluloid ukes

2007-12-04T19:24:00.000-06:00

several years ago, a fine gent from Kentucky (now Californee) enjoyed that magic moment when you first discover williwaw, and proceeded to film williwaw in situ (in the former williwaw headquarters, also known to the downstairs neighbor as the stolen-TV-guide stash). That filming became a small part of a greater opus dedicated to the outskirts of ukuleleville, rock that uke. The film played the festival circuit to good pablum, but now can be seen in the comforting confines of the homestead via Elderly Instruments.

Though williwaw still haven't seen the final cut (zoinks!), it's sure to make williwaw look foolish, 'cause there just isn't any other way to look, now, is there? Back circa 1993, the admiral of the fleet, the kamaka soprano uke with binding and schaller tuners, was purchased from Elderly. They doubled shipping costs and the uke came with a hairline crack in the back. The fine people at Elderly were told ever so gently that they suck on the flagpole of shame, and williwaw hasn't purchased a goddamn thing from them since. So williwaw may never see the final cut. So foolish, that williwaw.

this jug is always full

2007-10-29T13:03:00.003-05:00

old-time goodness has come to the youtuberie - behold! the finest of champaign and vermilion counties...

unfortunately there is no documentation of a cornlikkers show at the former blind pig co. venue, circa the same time, which featured the unique and posilutely riveting double jug attack of jim and gerald. gerald also joined the williwaw endeavour on tuba in a loving rendition of færies wear boots with bill and meghan on saxamaphones. alas, there is no known document of that massive outing, either. pity the færies, pity the jugs.

intruder alert, intruder alert

2007-10-19T11:41:00.000-05:00

the last post hereabouts (finally posted this very day) waxed on the greatness of the Van Halen album track, Intruder, and its place in williwaw lore. yesterday, an intruder broke into the house, took the laptop, a digital camera, and a fishbowl full of coins. fu¢king intruder. i blame michael anthony. for everything.

years ago (about 10½, to be approximate), in a house no longer there, behind the champaign public library, there was a break-in. that perpetrator broke the kitchen window, took a cup of coins, peter pollack's leather jacket (leaving their lesser jacket behind), and made themselves a tuna salad and cherry tomato sandwich with their hands. that, in retrospect, was hilarious. this break-in, not so much so. thanks for nothing, michael anthony.

music for bicycling, 3

2007-10-19T10:48:00.000-05:00

the ongoing rules of music for bicycling: never play your music, no matter how jolly-rocking it may be, loud enough to mask the environment around you, even if the environment includes a woman in a car yelling that your vest isn't very reflective. especially when she turns out to be right: the supposedly illuminating vest worn for that lovable evening commute doesn't reflect shit. piece of crap.

a bicyclists best friend: Melvyn Bragg. No, it's not music, but the BBC Radio 4's In Our Time with Melvyn Bragg is the best bet for safe, boredom-free cycling. well, you have to enjoy topics like antimatter, the divine right of kings and the history of Arabian Nights, but other than that, it's darn good listening.

in addition to the previously mentioned failures of kraftwerk, other experiments with other sequential masters also have come up less than satisfactory: tangerine dream - in their sequencer prime (e.g., Rubycon) - ain't got the goods. Phase based minimal works, such as Steve Reich's Six Marimbas does a bit better. Only problem is that as a 'Classical' recording, it has to be compressed and limited to make it through the mp3/earbud conduit of lo-fidelity listening.

drunken drumming always helps. Van Halen I would seem like good cyclin' folly, but some of it really drags the ol' pedals down. but a coupla' numbers by the brothers of Halen do propel one steadily onward. A higher gear was reached listening to Everybody Wants Some from Women and Children First. Similar gear-minded go-ness was attained listening to Dog Eat Dog by those lovable aussies AC/DC (yes, it's supposed to be a lightning bolt, not a slash. fine). The connection? That beat, man, that groovy, groovy beat. It's the standard clavé pattern (3+3+2) played a bit slow with heavy use of the tommy-toms. For some yet-to-be-known reason, that hunkers the ol' feller down, and the spokes begin to blur...

williwaw has been a big fan of high-gain pick-scrapes and other noises of the now tragicomic character, former guitar hero known as Edward Van Halen. the inaugural williwaw show in the fall of 1994 at mabel's, opening for true heroes lonely trailer (brian still brings the heroics in his new masterful venture with other true hero nicholas rudd) included a take on the Van Halen afterthought Intruder (from Diver Down) with pat hawley and t.j. harrison. that song, one of the great ones.

another clear winner is The Who. Not much of a surprise, though, given the loose and manic stylings of Keith Moon. granted, only the hits have been tried, but everything from Pictures of Lilly to Won't Get Fooled Again works splendidly. As long as the rockin' don't stop the people from knockin' your reflective gear. sigh.

the devil's in the dvd extras

2007-10-16T14:05:00.001-05:00

like most other gibberishes on the inter-web, the youtube has many redeeming facets, and no, not just watching lovingly rendered williwaw bits. but it does have its troubles, and when you're a complete uke nerd trying to deduce every finger movement of a Roy Smeck short, fidelity is everything, and Smeck's fingers might move too fast for uncompressed 30 fps film, let alone the distorto-world of the youtube. so when the opportunity strikes to see someone play all close up and vivid-like, it's downright keen.

Case in point: a value-added documentary for a documentary - a meta-doc? - entitled in the edges: the grizzly man session, currently showing on one of the satellite stations, the sundance channel, or more conveniently as a dvd extra to the documentary film grizzly man. it's another hyphenated-but-still-dangling-preposition making-of chronicle of a two-day recording session for Werner Herzog's take-it-or-leave-it film. the session is helmed by Henry Kaiser, huzzah!, with a whole lot of footage of Richard Thompson playing electric and acoustic guitar: close-up, long takes, enough to study his signature bends, open voicings and other fodder for the oh-please-me set. there's also the methods of film scoring; (paraphrasing) okay, now we need something very similar but in a different tuning for exactly 36 seconds. jinkies. and Mr. Thompson does it all with aplomb (of course, he's scored for films before). it is just a making-of doohickey, but watching Thompson play is worthwhile. maybe not worthowning worthwhile, but worthrenting worthwhile.

note: williwaw has had one venture in scoring: the introduction to the fine film, rock that uke. truth be told, I never saw the final cut, so don't know how it came out, but a fine film, of that I'm sure.

older films often suffer from poor syncing and/or dubbing to get a clear idea of what's a-happenin' with the talented folk's fingers and strings. heck, there's been cliff edwards appearances (yes, i scan every one of his appearances for the chance to catch him play) where he's not even playing the same instrument as the recording he's strumming along to. hmph-a-dickles. but a while back, a rare one graced the satellites that has several scenes of Josh White playing the good folk blues, including some very in'eresting side-of-thumb slide: The Walking Hills. rest of the motion picture ain't too bad either, but the Josh White scenes are pure gravy. one of 'em is on that detail-obscuring devil, the youtube (not available for the embeddin', alas).

perhaps of note: having recently watched many a bit of musical youtuberie with sync troubles, it's interesting to your local perceptual psychologist how the amount of audio-visual delay allowed for music, say, the striking of a drum, before it becomes disorienting is much shorter than for speech. speech is highly redundant, which allows for greater asynchrony, although when the delay is increased past threshold, the audio and video become separate streams, and tax the cognitive load ever so much.

a stable build

2007-10-10T17:17:00.000-05:00

donkeyscratch industries, the home of williwaw and the williwaw ensemble, now has a fully stable build, that is, a fully built stable. no, that's not it. a bicycle built for two. no, a (fingers-crossed) error-free website. i'm sure there's something about it that isn't W3 compliant, but it's rather close, b'golly.

and the content - oh! the content! - so many sounds to hear! here a sound, there a sound, everywhere a sound-sound. yes, even sound-sounds.

some of the content is runnin' on less than a full tank, but it keeps a-comin', b'gosh 'n' golly.

matt pike is neat

2007-10-09T14:38:00.001-05:00

scrolling through photos of a high on fire in-store appearance at amoeba records, and something just doesn't add up about matt pike's guitar - holy wigsphere! it's a nine-string monstrosity (not a "Nashville guitar" as I had originally posted, though, but Big Joe Williams would be proud): single strings on the bottom 3, double strings on the top 3. some of the heaviest rockin' 'round, and it's comin' out of a studio oddity. a custom-built studio oddity. neat.

join the task force

2007-10-09T10:05:00.001-05:00

music for bicycling, 2

2007-10-08T14:55:00.000-05:00

before any stalwarts begin their own brand of electroacoustic-pedal-stimulation experimentation, a general note or two:

the foley operator is not your friend
Stereo sound effects are bad. Very bad. Tried some popular tracks that the kids love (some Missy 'Misdemeanor' Elliott singles, to be precise), one of which has a stereo panned siren and other automobile sounds - to paraphrase the not-so-poetic Peter Burns, bad and dangerous to know. Gripping sound-effect laden portraits of street life are not the only foible in cycling's sonic fables, oh no. Radio plays, such as those put on by the BBC (Radio 4 podcasts from afar, for example) are fine until they go live on the scene. Then it's distracting, bordering on destructing. There's also an otherwise cyclable track by Buffalo Daughter about turkeys (oh, that inscrutable Japanglish translation nuttiness! sigh) that includes the sound of a passing semi-hauler. Bad, and still dangerous (unlike the career of the aforementioned Peter Burns).
Not all stereo is bad. Paul to one side, John to the other - that's fine. It's the sweeping Lucasfilms-esque shenanigans that are to be avoided in the poo-poo'ed pastime of musical cycling. Wait, musical cycling: Is that where riders hope from seat to seat until the music stops? Horrendous!

positively pannekaker
with all these not-to's, a little plus: Swedish Death Metal will not fail. Specifically, the Gothenberg sound. The secret? Two things: palm-muting and unison basslines. The chug-chug-chugga guitar parts have a sort of visceral appeal. Coupled with the chugging is the unison basslines, which are also usually recorded with a bit more high-end bite than, say, a jazz outing, hence nothing is lost in the low-end. And the screaming. People screaming is always a good motivator. 50,000 P.E. teachers can't be wrong, can they? And the Swedes? They do screaming right. That Tomas Lindberg feller. That feller from Refused. Great screaming, incessant screaming. Trust in the Bjorler Bros: At The Gates & The Haunted records - cycling gems! Well, not the most recent Haunted recording - that one kind of wallows/whimpers/whines. Slaughter Of The Soul and The Haunted Made Me Do It could've put Floyd Landis in the victory jersey without a drop of testojuice.

music for bicycling

2007-10-05T19:37:00.001-05:00

for a good while now, a series of horrendously unethical experiments have been committed whilst on the workday commute. namely, the listening to music ... on a bicycle! tsk-tsk, yes, but our foolhardy lad has done it for science, namely the science of musical propulsion. that is, do certain musics help propel a cyclist forward? do others decelerate the noble rider? Studies were done with a small flash-memory media player and a pair of hanging-in-the-pinna "earbuds" (not to be confused with "earbuds" that have some sort of inserted rubber coupler that creates a seal).

notice: there is terrible bass response in earbuds, as there is rampant leakage, along with large amounts of wind noise masking the desired input. This is of great consequence in the effectiveness of the music by way of its fidelity: my spine may be the bass line, but these cotton-pickin' headphones aren't cutting it (though they sure are cutting out the bass). that is, if the music relies on low-frequency communication, it ain't going to cut it. so much with cuts, on to the results!

so early in the race, a surprise
kraftwerk, despite rolf & florian's love of all things pedal-powered, doesn't make for great cycling. how could this be? they even wrote some music for the tour de france! methinks the answer is twofold: teutonic beats aren't as great as they might seem for the rhythm of cycling, and a lot of kraftwerk's bass lines are narrowband signals (read: pseudo-sine waves) that get lost in the wind-trashed morass. all of man-machine, autobahn & computer love were tried. the audibility issue was supported by further attempts with selections from their live collection minimum/maximum, which gave a bit more propulsion thanks to the live-sound compression, but still not enough to call kraftwerk cyclable. perish the thought!

don gerard, fashion plate

2007-10-04T10:11:00.011-05:00

behold! the winner of the inaugral williwear prize, don gerard...

have you looked simply dashing in your fine williwaw ± ensemble tee? let the good folks know of your dashing ways. sure, you're no don gerard, but we know you got style, brothers and sisters. jealous? let the good folks know and you'll get one of your very own - 'tis true!
note: williwear is an actual and notable fashion label begun by willi smith (r.i.p.); well before there was the throng of African-American owned labels [For Us By Us (FUBU) and its ilk], there was williwear. i'm guessing a bit of homophobia mixed with the great (though definitely not continental) divide between street and haut couture circles played a part in his general obscurity. suck on that, Phatties.

on with the youtuberie

2007-10-03T14:17:00.003-05:00

The latest in what's becoming a relatively reasonable line of
audiovisual mayhem from donkeyscratch industries:

this one was once again done with the minimal-bordering-on-useless Windows Movie Maker, hence everything is done with fades. actually fades and one vertical wipe, but really, just fades. it's not very good, but if it helps you listen to all that is ryans song [part one], than it has all be justifiably justificated. all of the films were from the American Biograph & Mutoscope Co., and were taken forthrightly from the LOC American Memory website.

and so it begins...

2007-10-03T13:38:00.000-05:00

Here it is. williwaw has entered the world of the weblog. And all williwaw really wanted to do was to sign up to someone else's weblog, but that got over here, then there, and well, here we are now.